Bowa says it will take 90 victories to win the division

Second-half schedule is stout, starting with 24 games in 25 days.

That's what Phillies manager Larry Bowa thinks it will take to win the tightly bunched National League East pennant race.

To reach that figure, the Phillies will have to go 44-31 in the second half. The next month will go a long way toward determining if that goal is reachable.

The Phillies have begun a demanding stretch in which they play 24 games in 25 days. Nineteen of those contests are on the road, including a West Coast trip to San Diego and Los Angeles. All 24 games are against teams that currently have winning records.

Shortstop Jimmy Rollins welcomes the challenge.

"It's not intimidating to me personally," Rollins said. "If you want to get to the playoffs and win the World Series, you have to beat real good teams. We have to play these teams eventually. They are major-league teams. They are supposed to be good.

"If we are playing good ball, it's not going to make any difference because there aren't going to be too many teams that are going to beat us," Rollins said. "We're as good as anybody. If we're not playing good ball, we're going to be looking up at somebody else."

Jim Thome said this will be an important part of the schedule.

"This will tell a lot about our club, " Thome said. "It will tell us where we stand."

Thome said the Phillies can't afford to repeat the 1-9 stretch they had a year ago from Aug. 19-28 in Milwaukee (0-3), St. Louis (1-2) and Montreal (0-4).

"We were talking about this down in Houston," Thome said. "What we have to try and eliminate is that road trip we had last year, where we went 1-9. The Marlins didn't play well at the same time, so we never lost a whole lot of ground, but we didn't open up any either."

Mike Lieberthal said you can't really say it's a do-or-die stretch.

"It depends on how the other teams in your division do," Lieberthal said. "If we have a poor road trip and don't get off to a good start, and the Mets and Marlins and Braves get hot, then it can be a bigger swing, especially playing teams in your division. And when you're on the road for that long, you can lose five to 10 games."

Thome said Philadelphia's goal is to win every series.

Would he be satisfied if the Phillies could play .500 in this grueling stretch?

"Our goal is to do a little better than .500," Thome said. "Everyone in this room would say the same."

Closer Billy Wagner said the bottom line is whether the Phillies can hold first place.

"If we can play as bad as we did the first half and still win the division, nobody would say anything," Wagner said. "We know we're better than that. We have to go out and stay consistent."

Bowa held a rare team meeting before the team took the field for pre-game warmups.

The crux of the message?

"You better be where you're supposed to be mentally," Bowa said. "The mental part of this game is what sometimes gets you over the hump. You can't make mistakes at crucial times in the game or give away at-bats with a man on third and less than two outs. For some reason, when Thome doesn't hit we gotta overcome that. We gotta learn to lean on other people."

The players didn't chime in anything extra.

"I don't know too many players who give rah-rah speeches every day during a 162-game season," Lieberthal said. "That's pretty hard. They come in one day and go, "Let's get him, guys!' Then the next day they have to do it again."

Bowa said the Phillies have to get quality starting pitching.

"If we don't pitch, we're in trouble," Bowa said.

Care package: Pat Burrell will be sending a jersey, bat, ball and some autographs to the youngster who was hit in the head by his bat, which sailed into the stands behind the Atlanta dugout during Sunday's game at Citizens Bank Park.

Burrell has tried calling the youngster, who spent the night in a hospital with a concussion, and has left messages with the boy's father.

"I knew that all the people gathered around, but I didn't know what happened until someone told me when I got back to the dugout," Burrell said. "I felt bad. You wonder sometimes when kids are hit when their parents are there. A lot of times when something like that happens, somebody isn't paying attention.

"I'm very sorry," Burrell said. "These things happen during games, and by no means was there any intent. But sometimes these things happen, and when they do it affects the players, too."

Extra innings: Jason Michaels is still bothered by a strained left hamstring and will be limited to pinch-hitting duties for the next few games. It's not serious enough to put him on the disabled list.

Paul Abbott will remain in the rotation. He's scheduled to start Monday in Atlanta.

Vicente Padilla and Amaury Telemaco were encouraged by side sessions Thursday. Padilla is on track to make a two-inning/40-pitch rehab start for Clearwater on July 28. Telemaco is pointing toward a one-inning or 20-pitch rehab appearance for Scranton on July 26.